Tuesday, 8 November 2011

Seaforth Cottage

Jane & Neville {above}

Janes Lilies {above}

Harry on the front steps {above}, He looks like he lives there!!

Me with Max and Charlotte {above}

I have long admired {actually, ever since I was 14 years old} the very pretty cottage which is located diagonally opposite my parent's house. It is called Seaforth Cottage and was built C.1897. It has been owned by Jane and Neville for the past 30 or so years and they are some of the most beautiful people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

As a young girl I would often talk about the pretty white cottage across the road. I even told Brad when we were looking for our first house years ago that if that house ever came on the market then I would really, really love to live there.

I recently plucked up the courage and went over and introduced myself to Jane and Neville. We sat on their front verandah and I asked them the huge favour of whether I could use their beautiful home for our upcoming Christmas/Summer photo shoot for our online store. I explained to them that I had always loved their pretty cottage and I would often wish I could go inside to see what it was like and what lovely things they had furnished it with. There was absolutely no hesitation and they offered their home to me with open arms.

One of the most beautiful things about Jane and Neville is their generous spirit. Jane is actually a potter and an extremely talented one at that. She holds classes for a couple of ladies in the street one morning a week in her gorgeous white timber shed at the back of the house. You might have noticed the pottery animals on the verandah under our Christmas tree over at the online store. Well, those are Jane's. She has lined her entire verandah with her pretty and enchanting pottery animals. I told her I wanted to take them all home with me! She laughed.

I should also mention that next year Neville turns 100. I really couldn't believe it when Jane told me.

We had the most glorious day setting up our Christmas/Summer vignette on their front verandah and front lawn. Did you notice the beautiful garden in the pictures? It is amazing to say the least. When we were there all the November lilies were beginning to flower. It is just so beautiful and rambling and imperfect. Just the way I like gardens to be.

I hope you enjoyed hearing a little bit about the beautiful house we used for our online vignettes this season. I feel that Seaforth cottage was the perfect setting for our photo shoot. It gave us that beautiful, lived-in, comfortable, old family house feel which is exactly what I wanted this season to reflect...a place where good times are shared and memories are made.

27 comments:

Anna, I LOVED their garden 1 million/10. It's everything a garden should be- slightly messy, full of old style blooms, cosy, lots of texture and no horrible destructive bush turkeys or other Old testament varmints. It had a wonderful feel to it.

Thank you for the wonderful background story on this sensational beach cottage. It was so sweet that it actually brought a tear to my eye. Jane and Neville must spend a lot of time tending that garden and keeping up the cottage, as it appears very well kept. That is probably part of what keeps them so young.

Lovely bright cottage and flowers, not to mention the amazing residents. Did you get any tips from Neville on how to stay so healthy? It 's one thing to live to be 100 and another to look as good as he does.

I established this blog in 2006 so that I could record my inspirations, my thoughts and my work as an Interior Designer. Based in Brisbane, Australia, my store Black & Spiro is always filled with a unique collection of interesting things which we scour the globe to find. I am most passionate about my family, my career, tradition, collecting, flowers, fabric, gardening, colour and quality and I will always strive to be creative and extraordinary in everything I do. I hope I can inspire you to live a bright and colourful life surrounded by the things you love.